


mortality

by freedomfriesandapplepies



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: "you" are enjolras, M/M, POV Second Person, exceedingly long metaphors, like obscenely long, take up half the story long it's awful, unintelligible pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 01:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8125723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freedomfriesandapplepies/pseuds/freedomfriesandapplepies
Summary: “Can love exist without mortality?” - Alfred Allen, Ireland’s Love Poems
 "The moment he saw you he knew he could never be happy again.The moment - the second, the instant you came into view, the harsh front of cynicism and sarcasm that had been successfully kept all these years vanished, if only for the miniscule singular glare of time and it’s spacial relation to you as you appeared and were then blocked again by the bustle of bodies that drove you away with them, carried you from his vision like a breeze brushing past.You weren’t even smiling. You didn’t even see him."





	

**Author's Note:**

> A second person POV story that was supposed to be a little more on the analytical side of e/R's relationship but ended up just being a bunch of metaphors. I hope you enjoy!

 

_“Can love exist without mortality?” - Alfred Allen, Ireland’s Love Poems_

The moment he saw you he knew he could never be happy again.

The moment - the second, the _instant_ you came into view, the harsh front of cynicism and sarcasm that had been successfully kept all these years vanished, if only for the miniscule singular glare of time and it’s spacial relation to _you_ as you appeared and were then blocked again by the bustle of bodies that drove you away with them, carried you from his vision like a breeze brushing past.

You weren’t even smiling. You didn’t even see him.

To be fair, he had heard your voice before matching tone to face. The power in your speech, the flames of protest and desperation and _hope_ that lashed from your tongue with a righteous anger -- it was your _power_ that had beckoned his gaze to begin with.

Nothing could have prepared him for _you._

Each of your words had tempered a reply from him, a poetic drabble of _rebuke_ from his mouth that went unspoken because how could he begin to level himself with you? In such godly complexion, hair pulled back like woven gold and the pierce of dark eyes directed to what seemed like all but him and _oh,_ how just for a moment he would have liked to be your focus.

It’s unfair, it’s unfair -- the first aspects of actual meaning behind your presence that had manifested themselves as thoughts and had left him with barely a breath left in his chest. It’s unfair, not that you should be expected to _know,_ that such divinity exists in the form of a human, only comparable to the carved cheekbones and daunting serenity of a marble statue.

It’s unfair how helpless he had become from just a moment when you did not even _see_ him.

He blended with the crowd, nothing that stood out, a blur of motion with you isolated in a bold red as you fought and fought and fought and fought. Everything about you was passion and intensity, nothing could stifle your flames, no one could weaken your resolve.

Ah, but the way he lived, so contrasted to yours, full of purpose and righteousness, the way _he_ lived -- like a fallen leaf, whose only semblance of life was how the breeze picked him up and carried him, disconnected from the the source of his energy in the first place; it was destined to be, nothing lives forever, but perhaps he might admit to the desire of a stronger life. Perhaps he might admit that he fears death. Perhaps he might admit that he feels a little closer to his mortality with every passing day -- the breeze grows weaker.

He was a fallen leaf but you, oh, oh _you_ were a candle’s flame, burning and taking what you needed, slowly burning yourself out as the wax would drip - he refused to believe himself to be the only one who _saw_ how tired you had made yourself - knowing you are on a time schedule and that before the last of your wick _your life force_ before it is charred beyond any heat your flame could handle you _must_ burn brightest. You _must_ make your difference before you are gone.

It’s _cruel_ that to venture too close could burn him. A drying, dying leaf versus the flames of a future’s vision. Are you not a reason for his flammability? And yet are you not as well his spark of life, his muse and inspiration? To him he is flimsy and you are overwhelming in strength. To him there is no comparison but a bitter cynic to a terrible idealist.

And you never noticed. You never knew.

Nothing he did was ever enough to catch your eye or attention aside from when he negated your words with his own -- the first time he had ever opened his mouth and laughed so cruelly at your ideals with a melancholic grin, wry on his scruffy features, you were aware of him. After that...After that you were _always_ aware.

You could always feel his gaze and could find him in a crowd and no matter where you were his presence was always _there_ and you gravitated to it like he was _not_ refuting you but offering his _guidance._

To him, he is but a leaf in the wind and you are fire. You can burn with with a touch.

To you? He is made of _knives --_ untouchable in nature, sharp and harrowing with words like needles popping your bubbled visions and dreams, constantly forcing you into improvised banter between doubt and assurance.

You were a pair to be witnessed; a perpetual _back and forth_ as you picked up the pieces of broken ideals to shoot back with as much ice in his words as there was fire in yours.  It was a bond that could not be defined. You were fire and he was knives and both of you believed the other to be too dangerous to near, too distracting and too much of a _reminder_ for what you cannot have, but mutual affections remained discrete. 

You were too focused on what must be done.

He was too focused on what could not be.

So, just as it is that he should not near you it is _not fair_ that you should see him approach, hauntingly focused on you as you are prepared to face your demise; at peace as melted candle wax laps at the candle’s flame. You are prepared for this face, and you have been for some time, it was _inevitable,_ but _he_ was quite the unforeseen factor.

 _He_ who disregards all that surrounds the both of you, the only thing in his sights being _you_ and that connection made between his eyes and yours is too fervent to break. Slowly, _achingly_ slowly, he pushes himself closer, closer, every step a promise -- a promise that his end is synonymous with your own.

He is beside you, now, and you do not have to try too hard to understand why he is doing this; why he gives himself to a cause he does not believe in, why you were always too much for him to bear, why he never allowed himself to approach you prior or so much as brush your shoulders.

You take his hand. You think, perhaps, that under different circumstances it might have come along with an electric _buzz,_ one to speed up your heart and cherish as a moment, but that’s not the case.

All you can offer is a melancholic smile and a squeeze to his hand before you are forced apart.

 

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO C O N F E S S I O N, this is actually a piece I did for a creative writing class, hence the lack of names used, wherein we were supposed to take a quote from one media, like a song or poem, and just write SOMETHING for it. I've been on an Enjoltaire kick lately, so I thought, well, how sad and loving can I make this and still be appropriate for a teacher to read? I'm not sure I succeeded. Overall there's a lot I would have changed and done differently if this were in another POV and also weren't for a school project. There's just...A lot I'm not super happy with about this but I'm a lil' too lazy to bother fixing it, especially since the POV is so odd anyway, but YES yes SORRY thank you for reading!! <3


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